Biggest Surprise of Your Life

What was the biggest surprise you’ve ever had?

For me, it was expecting to welcome my son, Luke Zachary at Homestead Hospital only to see in the delivery room we were not having a boy…this was a girl!

I wanted a son badly. But, as soon as this cute little girl made her entrance onto the planet, all wants were pushed aside. My “wanter” got changed. I was beside myself, leaping with joy (literally). I will never forget it. It was such a surprise that we didn’t have a name for her for two days. We eventually named her McKenna Grace. She’s our family comedian…and quite the cuddler. She’s the little ham on the right.

What’s your big surprise?

Pulse of the City: Language

Every now and then, when I catch an interesting article about Miami, I’ll post it up for a chat about how it intersects with our mission at Life Pointe.

In this AP article, we’ll look at Spanish as the primary language of the city.  Here are some other interesting statistics from the article:

• In the 1950’s 80% of the Miami population were non-hispanic whites.
• In 2006, 18.5% of the population are non-hispanic whites.
• By 2015, that number is estimated to be 14%.
• 58.5% of the population speaks Spanish.
• Half of that figure speaks Spanish only.

Another observation from outside of this article is that 1st generation Hispanic-Americans often speak Spanish only, 2nd generation Hispanic-Americans are bilingual, and 3rd generation Hispanic-Americans often speak English only.

Looking outside of the Latino population, we see a large segment of the population speaking Creole.  Beyond that, each of us, even when we speak the same language, speak a different cultural language which raises a number of barriers.

Further, outside of a few neighborhoods like Hialeah and Little Havannah, most neighborhoods in Miami are integrated unlike many other large cities which have significantly segregated communities.  For instance, Life Pointe Church is approaching 40 different nationalities in attendance.  So, here are some questions:

• With this as the backdrop, what opportunities do churches in Miami have?
• What challenges do we face?
• What needs do the people in our communities have that the Church in Miami can be meeting?
• Largely, the Church in Miami has failed to adapt to shifting cultural realities.  What does the Church need to do to best minister to today’s population?
• Looking at generational language challenges, what challenges does a family face as it relates to church?

Got Funk? Begins this Sunday!

Message series info here.

Wood and Fire

I just got back in from Tampa and the first meeting of my coaching network with Nelson Searcy.  It’s my second go around in the network.  I grew a ton during the last session.  I expect the same again. I grabbed lunch with Mario Moxey from the Bahamas (he graciously treated) and met a ton of really great guys that I’ll get to know better over the next 8 months.

One of the things you do on the first day is to verbalize your expectations in front of the entire group.  It was startling to hear what I was expecting.  The plans that don’t startle us don’t require faith and must certainly be a bore to God.

Nelson shared a bit out of Ephesians 3 and drove home the point that God wants to surpass anything we can even imagine through us.  This fueled my fire.  Check it out:

Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. Ephesians 3:20

A bit later, Roy Mansfield was talking about systems and the Spirit of God.  He equated systems to wood and the moving of God to fire.  If we fail to properly arrange the wood, we will diminish the fire.  I am not a systems person.  But, in the last network, I was able to focus better on them, become more disciplined and more strategic and see the fire of God flow more freely in the church.

I am asking God to help me to know how to arrange the wood.  I’m also asking God to send men and women with bundles of wood.  I want to see God’s kingdom come in this city more than anything.  We need wood.  We need people that understand systems.  We need to prepare for the fire.

God is sending the fire.  He has sent the fire.  I don’t want the fire to come to a place that isn’t prepared with wood.  I don’t want the wood to be sitting around with no fire either.  I want wood and fire.

A Princess’ Guide to Lizard Catching

This is the super spiritual stuff that goes on at my house. Cast: Kourtney, McKenna, Blake, Kelly, and Dad.

Book Review: Time Power by Brian Tracy

I struggled to locate Time Power by Brian Tracy at Barnes and Noble and actually gave up. I went home and purchased it online and read the PDF. This is the second book this year I’ve read on my computer. The first was Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll and Gary Breshears. I don’t know what the long term affect of that is on my eye sight. But, it worked. I imagine I’ll be reading more books like this. I hate storing books. Searching through them is challenging as well. Both of those issues are solved with a PDF book.

Anyway, if you really want to recapture your time, don’t buy the book. Just read my top 10 take ways (the book is good though).

Memorial Day Tribute to My Grandpa

This Memorial Day morning when I got up, I thought about my grandpa, Pop Roberts.  He died last year.  He was my last grand parent alive.  He was extraordinary.  He was humble beyond words.  Quiet confidence.  He read the Bible daily to my grand mother who lost her sight.  He was a long time pastor who loved Jesus and his family intensely.  

He taught me how to shoot a gun, took me fishing, and beat me with a fly swatter (which didn’t hurt) for climbing under a stopped train with my little brother.  He let me play with his hunting dogs.  When his favorite Brittney Spaniel died, he made me a fishing lure out of his dog tags.

He also served his country in World War II fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, the bloodiest battle in the war where over 19,000 Americans died.  During the war he lost hearing in one ear.  Later in life, he broke his neck and drove himself to the hospital.  

I just finished watching this video of him with my two oldest kids.  I want them to know that their great-grandpa was a hero who served his country and made America a good place where they can grow up enjoying freedom and prosperity.

The Brave on Memorial Day

Thank you. You’ve given so much.

Sunday Wrap-up

• Holy Mother of Memorial Days, batman.  Attendance usually plummets on Memorial Day weekend.  Not today.  We had 300% more people than the same day last year…one of our largest regular days to date.
• It goes without saying, that we need more of you guys to make the jump to the 9 am.  So many people have done that.  As quick as you are moving, people are filling up the 10:30.
• We had people sitting on the front row.  Considering that the stage butts directly up to the front row, that’s pretty significant.
• We closed out Fortune Cookie and Romans 8 today.
• I shared about CS Lewis’ conversion experience and 5 truths about God’s love.  God’s love is indestructible, expansive, persistent, overwhelming, and counter-intuitive.  
• We intro’d our new series that begins next week, “Got Funk?: religion for people with junk in the trunk.”  We’ll be going through the book of Philippians…going to be a lot of fun. 
• The video was awesome…smelt felt like I was there.
• A haircutting epidemic swept over Life Pointe.  Zech, our resident Jesus came in with a buzz cut.
• Jesse ditched his mop and is now sporting a mullet.
• As of this moment, Chris and Ritz are the only LPC bloggers that have an alternatively titled Life Pointe Wrap-up posted.
• It is probably because on our way to our Memorial Day weekend mother of all baptisms, the cops shut down the road on the way into the park.  Why?  The park was slammed with people and there wasn’t room for us at Biscayne Bay. 
• So, no baptism.
• Chris Day, Richie Nieves, Ozzie, and Tiffany were the only ones I know of from church to make it in.  No phone service in there.  So, they had no clue what was going on.
• We posted some people with signs at the roadblock to redirect people.  That was a good idea.
• While they were posted, Nathan was playing around with a harmless “black snake.”  That was a bad idea.
•  I saw it and suggested he back-up slowly since it was the fattest Cottonmouth I’ve ever seen, he should back away very slowly.  That was a good idea.
• I should have some pictures soon of what that uber-venomous pit viper looked like.  In the meantime, here’s a video of some crackhead trying to pull a Steve Erwin with a Cottonmouth.

 

Prayer for Baptism

I’d love to enlist your prayers for our baptism on Sunday at Bayfront Park @ 1:30 PM.  Last time we had our baptism, we got the boot.  I met with Frank Farragali, the Assistant Director for Miami-Dade Parks and Recreation who was unable to cite any specific code which would prohibit a baptism.

The Alliance Defense Fund has asked to represent us.  Before we move in that direction, we’re heading out again tomorrow for another baptism.  We’re functioning under the assumption that what happened was a mistake on the part of the park.  Hopefully, that assumption doesn’t get me arrested.  If it does, I’ll make my one phone call to Jesse to post the video. 

Seriously, this is a special day for several of our people and for our church family.  Please pray that the public expression of faith is congruent with our inner embrace of faith in Jesus Christ…prayerfully, we’ll look the same on the outside as we do on the inside.

Whiteboard Sessions

I’m watching the Whiteboard Sessions right now on the Conference Channel for free.  That’s cool and cheaper than a plane ticket for sure!

Control vs. Growth

Organization is a trait I admire.  All organization that exists in my life exists out of sheer force on my part.  It doesn’t come naturally to me.  Other things do.  Keeping things in neat bins is not one of those things.  Still I love organization.  I desire this gift.  But, I’ll settle for the learned discipline.

With that said, I don’t want to confuse organization with control.  I’m convinced some people are organized because they love to be in control.  If everything is organized into its own little bin which satisfies some inner-urge to control 100% of life’s variables.  This is unhealthy and it impinges on our ability to grow. As much as a lack of organization prohibits us from having the time or insight to capitalize on opportunities within our reach, too much control will limit our ability to develop, empower, and deploy others which is a necessary ingredient to growth.

So, I’d make the following suggestions for leaders who want to see growth but who are prohibited because of an unhealthy desire to control all of the variables in life:

• Understand that releasing control empowers others.
• Intentionally back off from time to time to see how people respond without you.
• Stop doing things others can be doing.
• Don’t manage the “how.” Evaluate the outcome.
• After releasing responsibility to someone else, don’t re-assume responsibility because you didn’t like the outcome on their first attempt.
• Do not permit inflexibility to have a foothold in your world or in the lives of people you lead.
• As you release responsibility, be there for people like a father would be there for his child learning to ride a bike.  But, don’t become obsessed with holding on to the bike.  If my dad tried to run down the street with me for safety now as a 34 year old man, we’d both look foolish.
• Teach people to do the same.  If you’re a control freak.  The people you work with will be as well.  Empower your people and they’ll do the same.
• Finally, understand that by choosing not to control, you will experience waves of creativity and high productivity.  But, things will not look like you would imagine them to look.  This is a good thing.

This is how we roll in S. Florida

Thanks to Jeremy for the link.

New Life Pointe Church Website

I’ve been threatening to reveal our new website for sometime.  Its taken longer than planned.  But, it is now live at the moviechurch.info address!  You can compare it with our old site (at least for a few hours) and see how much more interactive and comprehensive this site is.  Later this evening we’ll be switching over our other addresses which will mean some downtime on our email.

There are some links that need to be fixed, interaction content added, and some archival content that needs to be updated still.  Please test it out.  And, if you are feeling especially froggy and would like to list the locations of links and content that need to be tweaked, list them here in this thread.

JBirdMedia did a great job working with us.  Jason was incredibly accessible.  And, our site is totally unique to us…love it.

Sunday Wrap-up

• Chris gives the Independence wrap-up. Phil has his scoop here.
• It was a good day overall.
• The coolest thing was seeing the husband of one of our long timers write on his guest card that he wanted to follow Christ. This guy is straight up honest – no bull. Big day!
• The Cure (youth) looked like it was great. Jesse 2.0 (the new Jesse…not this Jesse) played guitar and Ritz fired up the bass for the first time…again big stuff.
• I’m excited that our internet is up in the theater. I twittered a little message before service from my laptop. That means we can do some pretty cool stuff in the next couple weeks.
• We are pushing the 500 mark. Breaking through rests on two things: life groups and moving people to the 9 am service.
• People are coming to know Jesus every week.
• Our systems need to be working right to help everyone find a place where they can grow. I don’t want to be the reason we don’t take over this town…the reason why we can’t minister to our town on a higher level.
• Life Group registrations are off the chain.
• The 9 am service is doing really well (record crowds). But, clearing the 10:30 is work….it is definitely our front door.
• We’ll open our third service this fall. Between now and then, we need as many people as possible to make the move to the 9.
• After service, we grabbed lunch at Chilis with Chris, Christina, Jesse, and Reina. I’m in a rut over there…always the Citrus Fire Chicken and Shrimp Fajita.
• We hit the office, I wrote some thank you notes and Chris, Kelly, Tammy and I rocked Guitar Hero for a while. I have to admit, my wife’s got some skills.
• Want to catch some more pics of today? Here you go.

4,000th comment

Thanks for a great community you guys have created.  As of this entry, there have been 4,012 comments chalked full of insight, foolishness, and friendship…with the occasional barb/buffoonery!    Thanks mucho!

Write a Story with Me One Line at a Time

I’m 80 comments away from my 4,000th comment.  Care to take me over the edge by writing an interactive story?  It’ll help your creative juices flow.  I’ll start it out with a Twitter/text message length sentence or partial sentence (no more than 140 characters).  Then, the next commenter picks up where I left off.

Ready?!  Here we go.

“There once was a man with a wooden leg and an eye patch who…”

Community as Vehicle to Christ

There is only one way to God the Father (1 John 2:1) and that is through Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5).  There is only one way to Jesus and that is through the power of the Holy Spirit (John 16:5-11).  I would offer a practical and Scriptural suggestion (John 4:28-29) that I’ve noticed over and over.  Friends position people to be in close proximity to an omnipresent God.

Community/relationship is almost always the front door to the drawing, convicting power of the Holy Spirit.  People often buy into me before they buy into Christ.  If I fail to open my life to others- to extend myself on behalf of Christ, the door to Jesus may be more difficult to access.  I bring people into close proximity with Jesus by simply being in open, enjoyable relationship with them.  By living in community with others and sharing Jesus who is in community with me.

Sharing Jesus outside of the parameters of authentic community is commanded (Luke 14:12-24).  Without neglecting the call to reach to the marginalized, we are called to function in community with those in close relational proximity.  Without a doubt, the greatest responsiveness to Jesus is on the heels of strong or developing relationship.

PATH TO GOD

You (in community) -> Holy Spirit (in compelling conviction) -> Jesus (in salvation) -> God the Father
(in righteous judgment)

• What are the barriers to authentic community?

• What are the barriers to sharing Jesus in community?

• What are the barriers to the expression of God’s power in your existing relational networks?

Your Most Embarrassing Moment?

I was on crutches, a freshman in college, going home through the Chattanooga airport.  Standing in the front of the line atop two flights of stairs, I took my first step.  My no slip crutch pad and the no slip step locked in battle.  It was like falling over with your hands in your pocket.  I could see the crash coming but I couldn’t do anything about it.  Yes.  I was the loser tumbling to the bottom of the stairs.

After landing, I flexed my muscles to see if anything was broken…no pain.  Relieved, I looked up just in time to catch a glimpse of one of my crutches coming at my end over end, crashing into my noggin’.  Dang!  After that, I had to fly with the entire audience to my crash…don’t know what was worse.

Care to sit down in the therapist’s chair and share yours?

Treating Leaders Like They’re Remedial

Todd shares a great post quoting General Patton saying, “Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.”

I love it.  Understand when you need to apply situational leadership and help people along on a more basic level.  But, a lot of time, people don’t grow because they haven’t gone through the trauma of figuring it out for themselves.  So, quit talking to people like they’re remedial and start expecting them to step up as leaders.

Sunday Wrap-up

• Again, Chris, Ritz, and PJ beat me to their version of Sunday Wrap-up. Check ‘em out.
• I got up at 4:30 and hit the office…love that space. It’s totally stripped down and clean. It was the perfect place to re-write my notes and have some quiet time.
• At 8:15, I hit the theater.
• When I arrived, a two piece jazz band was playing in the lobby and chocolate fountains for dipping marshmallows, strawberries, and a ton of other little snacks were on tap just for our ladies.
• I immediately had a ton of explaining to do because I was wearing a suit and I have proof.
• Jesse was in Chicago. The Messengers (Bill Finch, Terry Brown, Rick Swintek, and Michael Betancourt) stepped right in…great stuff.
• During the message, I asked, “Whose side is God on anyway?” in week 2 of Fortune Cookie (Romans 8:31-34). The notes are below.
• Now, here is the cool thing: There is no way we could pull off what we do every week without the amazing women of Life Pointe. The list is long. Their commitment to Jesus was illustrated throughout the day. I cannot stress how honored I am to serve alongside them.
• We headed out from the theater to meet up with my family for lunch at my house. My mom was late getting there. Proving what I was just saying about our women, she was late because she drove back to the theater to take gifts to all of the women working at Flagship Cinemas. Awesome.

worship guide notes

FORTUNE COOKIE – week 2
“Whose Side Is God on Anyway?”
1. God is not on your side.
2. God is on your side.
Romans 8:31-34, John 3:16-18
3. God + you = a majority
Philippians 4:13
4. God – you = a majority – you
Mark 8:38, Daniel 4:34-37
5. A broken you + a perfect God= a revolutionary force
2 Corinthians 12:6-10

Momma, ooooh ooooh ooooh ooooh

My mom used to sing “I’d Rather Have Jesus” at bedtime.  That song remains the most soothing song in the world to me.  And, she imparted a value in me for the things of God through her voice.  My mom works hard, lives grace, and loves me, my wife, and kids beyond belief.

Kelly was my friend, then my girlfriend, then my wife.  Now she is the mother of my three children while excelling in the aforementioned relational attachments to me successfully negotiating me into watching chick flicks on Friday nights instead of Iron Man. She develops our kids to be self sufficient, bright, adventurous, and to have an inquisitive heart for who Jesus is.

Happy Mother’s day to the two amazing moms in my life.  I’m blessed to have a terrific mom.  I’m even more blessed to have married a hot lil’ mama that keeps my life interesting and who loves me so much.

Burn Bridges

This is a leadership lesson Sun Tsu’s Art of War style:

Sometimes you just have to break things and burn things down to get people where they need to go.

Have you ever had someone tell you that you shouldn’t burn bridges?  Me too.  It is good advice…sometimes.  In the case of mission, sometimes you just have to grow a backbone and leave yourself with no exit plan.  When you’re backed into a corner, you have to fight because there is only one way out.

Tactically, you shouldn’t position an army between your enemy and a body of water (river, lake, or ocean).  In the event of a retreat, you’re in mega trouble. But, sometimes there are more important things than survival.

Counter-intuitive lesson to be learned?  Provide no way of retreat and people must move forward.

500,000 dead?

Pray.

More Leadership Lessons from Moving

While we’ve made the move from our old offices to our new offices successfully, there are still a ton of things to do to bring order to our world.  I’ve also got a few leadership lessons learned in my back pocket.  They are:

• Throw stuff out. Quit hauling non-essential things.  If you don’t use it, lose it.  Focus.  Spend your energy working the essentials.  Stop consuming your life space with non-essential, negative side stuff, activities,  and (shock) people.  Every person is valuable.  But, some people work hard at destroying the value in others.  Leader beware.  Know who is essential and work like the devil to protect and develop those people.
• Consolidate. Every leader should be required to wait tables.  I first learned consolidation in that arena.  I relearned it this week.  Don’t make 5 trips.  Consolidate and make 1 or 2.  Think through your process.  It is hard work.  But, it honors people, time, and makes you more productive in the long run.  Of course, if working unnecessarily hard assuages your guilt, then by all means, continue not thinking through your processes in advance.
• Take a break to have fun in the middle of the hard work. Work hard.  Play hard.  When you’ve led people hard, take a great break and have a blast. Wednesday night after the move, all the guys and gals hit this awesome taco shop downtown called “La Cruzada Taqueria.”  I went home and collapsed.  The last thing I remember though were the jokes, stories, and flaming sauces we were daring each other to eat.  Looking back, this has been on of the longest weeks of the year…also the funnest.
• Compete. If you want to be productive, compete.  Tell a young kid that you can load 3 boxes to his 1.  You’ll load the truck faster.  Double your productivity by telling everyone working that they’re a bunch of girls.  Quadruple your productivity by pointing out the workhorse.
• Hire people to do it for you. If you cannot afford the time interruption or do not value the team building aspects of doing it yourself or if you do not have the expertise to do it yourself, hire someone to do it for you.  There is a lot of upside to outsourcing as you will soon see with our new website (soon…I promise).  However, expect things to be broken at a great rate because hired hands don’t appreciate how you’ve had to sweat, bleed, and skimp for your stuff.  At the same time, you can demand excellence.  If they don’t perform, you can cut them free and withhold money while severing a short term, low investment relationship.  You cannot do that so easily with close, high-investment, personal relationships.
• Don’t hire people to do it for you. Outsourcing may maximize your time and productivity.  But, it may not foster relationship, learning, team, or growth.  If you can afford the downtime associated with learning and interruption, go for it.  You’ll bond to people, create loyalty, ownership, cast vision, and get to know people on a level you wouldn’t otherwise.  You’ll also impart and gain knowledge that you wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.  The key is to know when to do it yourself and when not to.  If you don’t have and can’t muster the expertise internally, don’t even think about it.

A woman’s place is in the…

Leadership Bottlenecks

This week, we’ve been renovating new space and moving our offices.  Pulling off projects requires effective marshaling of people and resources.  If you are out ahead of the project, you’ll encounter bottlenecks which eat up time, resources, and frustrate people, who are ultimately your greatest resource.

When we first began doing setup in the theater, we would have 10 guys show up at 6:30 AM to setup.  It was a major league drag when the trailer would show up at 6:45 AM.  Ultimately, the 15 minute bottleneck had a price of 2.5 man hours in addition to 10 high-output volunteers now becoming 10 frustrated guys who will think twice about being on time next time.  

In leadership as your organization grows or as you encounter activity spikes, the bottlenecks that have always been around get exposed.  In response, a good leader will:

• root out bottlenecks, 
• challenge the people who cause them, 
• rework systems that cause individuals to be the bottleneck, and ultimately
• examine the skill sets of the guy in charge (in the case of Life Pointe, me)

Who Needs Sleep?

This weekend was crazy busy, crazy fun. Kelly and Luci tell a bit about it. Summed up? Chili’s with our life group (last gig of the Spring Semester), Guitar Hero with James and Mark, paint the offices, locked out of car, 2 services, IKEA, a little bit of sleep.

Sunday Wrap-up

• Chris, Phil, and Ritz have the scoop on Sunday.
• Ritz also has the scoop on his first real life girlfriend!
• Sunday was one of the most enjoyable days at Life Pointe for me.
• We receive communion weekly towards the end of our song set using a common cup.
• During the first song, we open the table for prayer. During the 10:30, people basically continued to come forward for prayer at one of the four tables throughout the worship set. Beautiful. Not only do we have a God that knows about our troubles, who is moved by our troubles, but He also intervenes on behalf of our troubles!
• The curtain has been killed in the 10:30…should have been gone a few weeks ago.
• The 9 AM vibe was unreal. A ton of people made the move from the 10:30 to the 9…perfect.
• I met a guest in the 9 am and asked her how she found out about Life Pointe? 3 invites at three different places in one day.
• Second time guests were seriously high. I love it when people come to church for the first. BUT, when people come back, I’m jazzed.
• We asked the question, “Do We make our own fortunes and call them fate?” (Romans 8:28-30). Worship Guide fill-in-the-blanks below.
• Listen here.
• After church, we jetted to IKEA where we got some stuff for our new digs.
• We’ll now have as many empty desks as we currently have occupied. As we add staff we’ll need them. More importantly, our volunteers have some great workspaces…no longer have to drag out folding tables.

Eight Belles is Dead: a Bad Sign for Hillary Clinton?

Yesterday, Hillary Clinton was sporting Kentucky Derby hats. A journalist asked, “Which horse of going to win the derby?” She said, put your money on the only filly in the race, Eight Belles. Bad news. The only female horse in the race came in second but also broke both her ankles and had was killed right there on the track! The Winner? Big Brown! I’m not making this stuff up!

I’m not into fate, fortune cookies, or omens. But, it does make you pause and go, “hmmmmm.” I bet she wishes she wouldn’t have put her money on Belle. I bet Belle’s owners wish she hadn’t either.  Barrack has to be smiling.  Does anyone else find this completely bizarre?